Vintage Viewmaster - Main Street at Night
Here are three more vintage Viewmaster scans from various old reels. Main Street at night is the best Main Street! Prove me wrong, interwebs, prove me wrong.
I may have overdone the contrast just a little bit! Those lights on the buildings look like tiny suns. Shoppers were surprised to get San Tropez tans after dark. I like the ghostly images of guests who rudely continued to move during the exposure. I often stand as still as possible for minutes at a time just in case somebody is taking my photo. But I'm not a hero, I'm just an ordinary Joe who loves his country.
This one is a little bit more "twilight-y" (the time of day, not the terrible sexy vampire movies). Main Street looks busy, but not as busy as it is every night nowadays. I see that the Emporium sells gifts. Hey, I like gifts a lot!
You'd think that the rich and powerful Viewmaster corporation (one of the six corporations that secretly governed the world) could have at least provided an un-skewed picture. But I'll forgive them because it's pretty neat.
8 comments:
Major-
You can almost feel the 'sizzle' from these images. Thank God on the nights I've been walking around Main Street, U.S.A. the energy has been a bit more sublime.
Thanks, Major.
Major, for some reason your mention of San Tropez tans made me think of the Bain de Soleil (for the central faces) commercials from the late seventies and early eighties. And now I have the song from the commercials in my head.
Did you know that Wurlitzer provided 40 cubic foot purple and magenta Disneyland gift bags for the pianos you purchased at the Park and took home with you? True fact!
I can hear my household electric meter kicking into overdrive when I scroll past these photos. No wonder Progress City needed a GE nuclear power plant.
I just checked my Disneyland View-Master collection and can't find these images at all. I do have several scorched reels, however. Now I understand why.
I remember taking a long time exposure one night at WDW (actually, it was the third one on this GDB post: http://gorillasdontblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/special-guest-photos.html). Right after I shot it, an Italian gentleman came up to me and wanted to buy a copy of the photo, insisting that he was in it and wanting it as a souvenir. I tried to explain that he wouldn't be visible in a 30-second exposure, that his faint ghost image would be overpowered by the constant light sources he was passing in front of, but couldn't make him understand. He called me "stupid" and stormed off very, very angry.
Thanks for sharing these today.
Nanook, women with those tall behive hairdos (lots of VO-5 hairspray) had to be careful or they would burst into flames.
TokyoMagic!, that’s exactly what I was thinking of!
Patrick Devlin, arg! On the other hand I kind of want to see a gift bag for a piano. Meanwhile I would really love to know if ANY pianos were ever sold via the Disneyland Wurlitzer store.
Chuck, maybe you need to obsessively collect every variation of Disneyland Viewmaster packet like I did for years. Did you ever think about that? Huh? Sorry, I get worked up. Your night photo came out great, I can see why the gentleman hoped he would be in it. I forgive him for his anger… we all know that Italians are a passionate people!!
TokyoMagic! THANKS! Now I have the Bain de Soleil song in my head.
Chuck, I remember your old post. Nice photos. You take good night shots. You could’ve taken another with the Italian man sitting VERY still. I’m sure you told yourself that over and over for years. Darn hindsight!
Nice pleasant shots today Major. The kind that make me wish I were there right now.
I always liked the View Master images showing Sleeping Beauty Castle from Town Square at night. Classic! The "Twilight-y" one is great.
Monkey Cage Kurt, that Ban de Soleil song is a great jingle, there are worse songs to have stuck in your head!
K. Martinez, they are like my children, I can't pick a favorite.
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